[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 16492]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



 CALLING ON RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT AND PRESIDENT PUTIN TO FREE EDMOND POPE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Walden) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening to reinforce 
the comments of my colleague, the distinguished gentleman from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Peterson), and to call on the Russian government and 
President Putin to free Mr. Ed Pope. We have heard he is an American 
businessman that they have held without trial for months, and I rise to 
assure Mr. And Mrs. Pope's family that the gentleman from Pennsylvania 
(Mr. Peterson) and I are doing everything we can to secure his release.

                              {time}  1800

  Mr. Speaker, the Russian government's continued incarceration of Mr. 
Pope, an American citizen, is nothing short of outrageous. Not only was 
his arrest and subsequent imprisonment contrary to international law, 
but the treatment he has received while in custody has been appalling.
  Until recently, I am told, he has been denied communications with his 
wife. We heard they went for 70-plus days without being able to 
exchange letters or any communication. He has been denied access to 
sufficient food and medical treatment by American standards and 
certainly every other basic right we associate with justice systems of 
civilized nations.
  Indeed, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Pope's imprisonment is reminiscent of those 
ugly dark days of the old Soviet regime when men and women were taken 
from their homes in the dark of night, interrogated, and sometimes 
never seen again. And that is wrong.
  Mr. Speaker, as of yesterday, I was told that Mr. Pope still lacks 
such basics as a blanket, a blanket his wife has been trying to send to 
him, a blanket that has been described and detailed about what they 
have to do to get through the Russian bureaucracy and yet continued to 
be denied, a blanket.
  A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to meet with Mr. Pope's 
parents, Roy and Elizabeth Pope, who live in my district in Grant's 
Pass, Oregon. Mr. Speaker, both of them are elderly. Mr. Pope suffers 
from terminal cancer and dementia. They and I do not fully comprehend 
the diplomatic obstacles that keep their son away from his family.
  Mr. Speaker, on May 9, I wrote to our own Secretary of State. On June 
27, I wrote again. In neither case has this administration bothered to 
respond to the two letters of inquiry that I have sent directly to the 
Secretary of State.
  Mr. Speaker, Ed's family knows that Ed is no criminal and that his 
imprisonment is unjust.
  Mr. Speaker, we simply must do everything in our collective power to 
see to it that he is freed as soon as humanly possible.
  Mr. Pope is no spy and he should be returned to his family. So I urge 
my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join us in sending a strong 
message to President Putin and the Russian government that the American 
people are serious about this and will not forget their actions if Mr. 
Pope is not returned immediately.
  In an era when the opportunity exists for better relations between 
our two nations, now is not the time to return to the mutual antagonism 
and suspicion that held the entire world hostage for a half a century 
of the Cold War.

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